Review by MJRyan

I agreed to review Becoming Jane for AustenBlog with a bit of trepidation. Not only would I be required to give some sort of informed opinion about picture resolution and sound but I’d also have to give my opinion on a movie that has been the subject of much debate over the past year and a half. What if I actually liked the movie? Would I lose the smidgen of Austen street cred I’ve obtained by submitting occasional reviews of Austen paraliterature? Would I be smacked over the head with The Cluebat? If I hated the movie, would I be dismissed as one who is impossible to be please or who places our Jane - preferably gilded in gold, cradling Pride and Prejudice in one hand and raising her pen of justice against loveless marriages in the other - on the highest pedestal in a museum? In the end, the lure of a free DVD was stronger than my fear of wading in to these perilous waters. (more…)

While we’re taking a (probably needed) break from the Complete Jane Austen, a few interesting pieces of news crossed our desk.

According to a column by the president and CPO of Twin Cities Public Television, despite all the Janeite complaints, the ratings for the films have been quite good.

And suggesting that “Masterpiece Theater” has “settled” for an all-Jane Austen format is simply incorrect — “The Complete Jane Austen” drew the highest audiences for the program in more than a decade.

Yep, they might stink, but we watched them like the big Janeite saps we are, and that’s all that matters. Sad but true.

For those of you outside the U.S. and UK, many of you are going to have the chance to see some of the new films, if you haven’t already. The BBC has sold rights to S&S07 and Miss Austen Regrets around the world.

Meanwhile, acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies’ adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” sold to 11 markets, including Japan, Sweden, Poland, Canada and Korea, and Jane Austen biopic “Miss Austen Regrets” also enjoyed solid sales.

Naturally, if we hear anything we’ll let our Gentle Readers know!

There’s even a tidbit of Becoming Jane news of sorts: a profile of Laurence Fox, whom many of us adored as Mr. Wisley, reveals that he originally was offered another role in the film, but turned it down.

“…With Becoming Jane they wanted me to be another part who was a bit jokey and buff but I didn’t have any interest in it. I quite liked the concept of going, ‘Maybe there is an alternative for everybody. Here is this shy guy who’d like to be able to express himself but can’t.’ Which is probably more like me anyway.”

Soooooo, who was it? Jokey and buff? Henry Austen, perhaps? Or–dare we say–Tom Lefroy himself? Because who else COULD it be?

Crudely tattooed on his left wrist is “Mrs Fox 31-12-07”, a memento of their honeymoon in Mexico. “Drunken moment in Playa del Carmen. And she’s got ‘Mr Fox’. But don’t tell the agent.”

Just how Fanny and Edmund would have spent their honeymoon, eh?

Lastly, a lot of viewers seemed to really like the music video that PBS put together for the Complete Jane Austen set to the music of Coldplay’s “Fix You.” It’s on YouTube now, so you can rewind to your heart’s content. (And a PBS representative told us about it, so the self-appointed Jane Austen Copyright Police can go have a cup of tea or something.)

Just thought we would mention it.

And we heard a radio advertisement that said it starred “Anne Hathaway as a lovestruck Jane Austen!”

We really shall retire to Bedlam.

We might have a DVD review here eventually. Stay tuned.

With the Complete Jane Austen gearing up on PBS, everyone seems to have Jane Austen films on their minds, and there are several events coming up dedicated to Austen film adaptations old and new.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is having a special event, “Jane Austen Goes to the Movies,” on Wednesday, January 30th at 7 p.m.

Jane Austen has become one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters, with both feature films and television mini-series to her credit. Independent scholar and lecturer, Virginia Newmyer, examines the dramatization of the novels, and whether 20th-century scenarios have improved on the renowned author. The discussion, illustrated with images, interprets the ways in which Jane Austen wove the enduring questions of power, money, and social class into her romantic comedies, and how the themes have been transferred to the screen. Several films and videos are considered, including: Sense and Sensibility (1995 feature film), Pride and Prejudice (1980 BBC mini-series, 1995 BBC/A&E mini-series), Mansfield Park (1993 feature film), Emma (1996 feature film), Clueless (1995 feature film), and Persuasion (1995 feature film). In addition, both Becoming Jane, the 2007 feature film as fictional as the novels, and The Jane Austen Book Club, very different from the book, are included.

Tickets for this event are $20, but if you call and mention that you are an AustenBlog reader, you can get them for the member price of $15! La!

Alert Janeite Jen K. sent us some information about upcoming events sponsored by JASNA’s Greater New York region, kicking off this week. First is a pre-broadcast screening of the new adaptation of Persuasion, this Tuesday, January 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Wollman Auditorium at the Cooper Union. The event is co-sponsored by Penguin Books.

JASNA New York also is co-sponsoring (with Borders) post-broadcast discussions for each of the six novel adaptations on the Mondays after broadcast at several locations in New York and Connecticut.

Another very exciting New York area event (though it’s not listed on JASNA New York’s website, but Jen posted details at The Republic of Pemberley) is a screening of the 1995 adaptation of Persuasion with a discussion featuring Ciarán Hinds, who of course played Captain Wentworth in the film, and possibly Corin Redgrave, who played Sir Walter Elliot, discussing the film with Foster Hirsch of the Brooklyn College Film Department and Rachel Brownstein of the CUNY English Department. The event will be at Brooklyn College on Monday, February 4, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. at the Gershwin Theater, Brooklyn College Campus.

All of these events are free and open to the public.

We previously mentioned “Jane-uary” at the Kansas City Public Library, and as part of that endeavor the library will have a film series called “The Reel Jane Austen” featuring some of the big-screen adaptations, nicely balancing the small-screen versions on PBS. The series will include P&P 1940 and 2005, S&S 1995, and Emma 1996. (No Persuasion 95? Quel dommage!)

In conjunction with Rocky Mountain Public Radio, Audrey Sprenger of the Denver Central Library will present a film and lecture series, Jane Austen, Literature’s Posthumous It Girl.

Created to supplement Masterpiece Theatre’s winter telecast of The Complete Jane Austen, this short cinematic and academic course will chronicle Austen’s slow but steady rise in popularity since the late 1800s, compare her to other It Girls like aviator Amelia Earhart and actresses Jean Seberg and Brigitte Bardot, critique Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, a Hollywood Teen Re-Make of Austen’s Emma and finally, explore Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen Book Club, a fictional take on why Austen’s work and persona still endures.

The Denver Central Library will have a free screening of the new adaptation of Persuasion on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 2 p.m. to kick off the series.

If Region 1 Janeites were hoping for insipid filmed fan fiction under their Festivus pole this year, we are sorry to inform that they are doomed for disappointment. The film will be available on February 12 on DVD and Blu-Ray, so we get a really good, clear view of Anne Hathaway’s lip gloss.

Author Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) eventually became famous for writing epic novels like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but as a young woman in the 18th century, writing was not a respectible goal for a young woman. With the entire world telling her she can’t achieve her dreams, Jane meets and falls in love with a charming rogue, Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), who inspires her to write the books generations have come to know and love.

“Inspired her to write the books,” indeed.

*beats stupid description into bytes and pixels with Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness*

But wait! There are Special Features! Oh joy!

Commentary with director Julian Jarrold, writer Kevin Hood and producer Robert Bernstein

…in which they no doubt complain about the Austen Police and Teh Ebil AustenBloggers who don’t understand The Auteur’s Vision!

Deleted scenes

There’s…there’s….there’s MORE of it? DOROTHY! Bring out the TITANIUM SPORK!

Becoming Jane Pop-Up Facts & Footnotes

Because Becoming Jane is just loaded with facts popping up all over the place.

Discovering the Real Jane Austen featurette

Because you sure won’t discover her from the movie! ha ha!

P.S. We should probably point out that if you buy it, expect more of the same from the eejits that make this sort of thing. Don’t complain when the rats keep coming back to the food source.

Cub Reporter Heather L. pointed us to a delightfully snarky review of Becoming Jane in The Prague Post. It’s true we’ve had a touch of blogging malaise lately (and apologize for it and promise to do better), but they’re just treading on our territory now. Not that we don’t love it. We feel rather as though we strayed into a sort of literary version of “the dozens.” Dorothy has made popcorn; help yourself!

The creators of Becoming Jane undoubtedly congratulated themselves on their cleverness in reimagining Austen’s life as being a mere blueprint for Pride and Prejudice, so we needn’t bother.

Oh, SNAP!

It is too much to hope for some semblance of truthfulness in a Hollywood film, so one must salute Becoming Jane with that highest of praise: “It could have been worse.”

OUCH!

While Jane and Lefroy circle each other like a road company Benedict and Beatrice, her mother is trying to wed her to the nephew of Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith). The nephew, Mr. Wisely (Laurence Fox), is a rather stiff, unimaginative suitor, though he’s fallen under the spell of Jane’s wit (a quality that the script strives to keep at bay).

OH! That’ll leave a mark!

As a dodgy Cliff’s Notes to Austen’s work, Becoming Jane is sure to appeal to those who buy books for their covers.

We think someone has been served. (Click through and read the rest of the review, it’s quite hilarious.)

Looks like Becoming Jane is being released in European countries; last week we saw trailers in several languages, and now Alert Janeite Sylvia L. sent us a review of Becoming Jane in German, though in Germany it’s called Geliebte (Beloved) Jane.

As a companion piece to the trailer en español the other day, today we have it en français, courtest of Alert Janeite Paola.

Paola also supplied a bit of the the dialogue, some of which we couldn’t quite catch on the Spanish version: C’est le plus désagréable, le plus insolent et le plus arrogant des hommes!

P.S. We have lots and lots to report but have been kind of busy the past few nights–we’ll catch up tonight, that’s a promise, including a TJABC poster giveaway and very possibly our review of the film.

“…arrogante, insolente, y impertinente de los hombres!”

Alert Janeite Sarah sent us some excerpts from a review of Becoming Jane (along with two other similar flicks, Moliere and Shakespeare in Love) in the latest edition of The New York Review of Books. Unfortunately it’s not available online except by subscription, so Sarah sent some excerpts. We haven’t been linking to a lot of reviews of Becoming Jane lately, because most of them are lukewarm at best and repeat the same things over and over. But in the wake of the bewilderment of a visitor to AustenBlog as to why so many of us did not enjoy the film, we think this is rather timely.

“[T]he message of all these lit-flicks […] is that to get the job done — to write the great play, compose the great symphony, paint the Sistine Chapel or the bridge at Arles — you need to Experience Life. Which means you need to fall in love — and then lose the loved one. And suffer.”

“Since Austen’s anti-romantic stance is so basic to her mode of thinking and writing, we can’t tell from these few remarks [her letters about Lefroy] whether she’s deploying her habitual irony to mask real feelings. The tone is very much the tone of her brilliantly parodic juvenilia, and certainly in no way suggests the anguish of Marianne or the melancholy regret of Anne.”

“Jane Austen was Jane Austen from the moment her consciousness formed: the wit, the implacable powers of observation, the trenchant moral vision, the sense of the ridiculous are all evident in her adolescent writings; it didn’t take a Tom Lefroy to unleash them. Certainly the circumstances of her life informed the novels — she wasn’t a fantasist — but it’s her unique mind that animates them, and that draws us to her; that makes us want to know her […]. That she loved, that she suffered, may or not be true, but these things can’t begin to explain her. The movie’s title is a misnomer: you can’t become what you already are.”

“There are the Jane Austen novels; the Jane Austen industry, including this current and perfectly respectable movie, is irrelevant.”

“So you love and you sacrifice and you suffer, but it’s all worthwhile, because sooner or later the world is at your feet. Forget genius — you’re box office. Coming next week to theaters everywhere: Ibsen in Love. Becoming Willa. Emerson.”

We’re kind of surprised there hasn’t been a big blowup on the blog before now of the snarkers vs. the defenders, as there was with P&P05–the contempt has been pretty much universal in the Janeite diaspora. That circumstance, more than anything else, says a great deal, we think.

In a real public service, Abridged Classics brings you…Becoming Jane.

Thanks to Alert Janeite Lorien for the link and a big laugh!

Since the comments are closed on the original “Truth About Becoming Jane” thread, continue the discussion here.

Well, this one slid past us…Becoming Jane is out on DVD in Region 2 as of today, so those of you in the Region 2 countries, or elsewhere who have the proper equipment, and can’t wait to get your sticky hands on it, get out your credit cards and start clicking away. (Do NOT miss the reviews on Amazon, they are hilarious, especially that from one “B. Elliot.”)

Extras include Behind the Scenes, Regency Dance Featurette, Hair, Make-up & Costume Design Featurette, Filming the Cricket Scene, Filming the Boxing Scenes, Deleted Scenes (DEAR JANE YOU MEAN THERE’S MORE???? *ahem*), Theatrical Trailer, Commentary, and Photo Gallery.

It’s also available in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray for those who want to see the sweat droplets fling off James MacAvoy in high definition during the boxing scene.

Not that we’re running out of clever title ideas, but as Alert Janeite Lisa, who sent in a couple of these links, noted, some of these are too good to resist. Fortunately, the clever titles also indicate (in most cases) thoughtful reviews of the film.

The Charleston Post and Courier starts the proceedings with “See Jane write, see Jane pine.”

We know so little about the real Jane Austen that it takes a certain amount of cheek to speculate on her romantic entanglements, real or suspected. The same holds for investing her with sensibilities that may or may not have been claimed even by this writer and woman of independent mind.

Upon her death in 1817, at a mere 41 years of age, many of Austen’s letters were destroyed by her sister Cassandra. We are not even entirely sure what she looked like, apart from a sketch made by her sibling. Nor do we know if the one brief encounter she had in her life ever involved more than a few dances at a ball.

What we do know is that Austen bequeathed to the world six of the finest novels in English literature, rich in irony and uncommonly shrewd on the provincial middle-class mores of her time. But author and character are not necessarily the same, however much we might like to believe in autobiographical intent, conscious or otherwise.

Yep.

Richmond’s Style Weekly goes with a classic: Plain Jane.

One of the reasons we still read Austen’s novels is that we can still see ourselves and those around us in the characters. That’s different from trying to cram our age into hers.

Hear, hear!

The Cornell Daily Sun wins the Internets with its title: Becoming Lame, though unfortunately it is the weakest review of the group.

Becoming Jane is the story of how lame Jane Austen was. Or, at least, how lame those involved with producing Becoming Jane were, and how they tried their best to make Jane Austen seem lame as well.

Though it does have a certain style.

The reviews are still running mostly positive, though in many cases the praise seems lukewarm. Of course, reviewers who don’t like Jane Austen movies are unlikely to enjoy Becoming Jane. We are, however, heartened by those who have not been fooled by the Made Up Story; for instance, Keith Cohen in The Blue Valley Sun.

This movie loses credibility by being advertised as a biographical portrait of the early years of author Jane Austen and the love affair that gave her the inspiration for her writings. It is historically inaccurate and based solely on a couple of letters written by Jane to her sister Cassandra and an admission by Tom Lefroy in old age that he had once been in “boyish love” with Austen.

The movie is a speculative flight of unsubstantiated fancy. With this flimsy foundation, a clunky and formulaic script attempts to imitate Austen’s literary approach to romance.

[. . .]

The movie’s major failure is its inability to make the words on a page from one of the greatest writers of English literature come alive on screen. You need to read Austen’s novels to truly appreciate her genius in matters of the heart and soul.

Hear, hear! (more…)

We would like to welcome new visitors to AustenBlog who saw Becoming Jane last week or over the weekend and are looking for more information on Jane Austen’s life and work.

The first question many of you will have is: What parts of Becoming Jane are real and which are fiction?

A good place to start is with a page put together by JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America: Becoming Jane: Sorting Fact from Fiction. JASNA also has a brief biography of Jane Austen on their Web site.

Lori Smith also has an article on the Following Jane blog about fact and fiction in the film.

We also recommend several books as good starting places to learn more about Jane Austen.

Elizabeth Jenkins’ Jane Austen: A Biography is unfortunately out of print, but used copies are available, or you may be able to find it in your library. There are lots of other biographies around, but this is our favorite; it’s beautifully written and gives a good overview of Jane Austen’s life.

101 Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon is a readable and very informative book about Jane Austen’s life and work.

Jane Austen: A Family Record by Deirdre Le Faye is an excellent follow-up to either of the above books and is loaded with all the dates, places, and names you could want.

A Memoir of Jane Austen, written by Jane Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, is available to read online or in an excellent print edition from Oxford University Press, which includes other biographical sketches and remembrances by Jane’s family members.

Some of Jane Austen’s letters are available online, or the complete, annotated print edition (including letters that became available later) is also available. (We do recommend that one read them for enjoyment, and resist the urge to read too much into them.)

The biography that inspired the film (though it is not a direct adaptation) is Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence. Read the AustenBlog review here.

If you really want to know more about Jane Austen, the most important suggestion we can make is to read her books. Don’t watch the movies; read the books. We are not suggesting that Jane Austen’s novels reflected events in her life or people that she knew; in fact, she said that was not the case. If Jane were around today to ask, we think she would suggest that her novels are the best memorial she could have.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments and we will argue over them do our best to answer them.

ETA: Added links to the Memoir and the letters.

The film goes into wide release today, and the media has about a thousand reviews. We can’t link to all of them, but Rotten Tomatoes ranks the freshness rating at 59%.

We were amused by this article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Anne Hathaway looks at the poster for her new movie, Becoming Jane, and winces.

“‘Their love story was her greatest inspiration,’” she says, reading the tag line. “I wouldn’t have gone with that.”

We wouldn’t have, either. (more…)

Yes, Gentle Readers, we weary of the film and it’s not even in wide release yet. But there’s still lots of good stuff out there, so we shall continue to bring you everything worthy of notice, and then some.

First up is Fellow-ette’s hilarious parody of the film, Un-Becoming Jane.

Jane Austen:

Despite my prodigious talent, my budding genius, and my formidable wit, I am vastly intimidated by your literary critique because you are a most agreeable–a most happily-endowed–what I’m trying to say is, you’re hot. And it is a truth universally acknowledged that even the most brilliant woman is speechless in front of …

Tom:

Your stories need more boning, you dig? More horizontal rhumba. More fornication.

Jane:

My luscious cherry lips are agape.

Thanks to Alert Janeites Diana I-C and Kirsten for sending us the link. (more…)

This is probably less a review and more of an editorial. Read Heather L.’s review on her personal blog, because it pretty much says what we would have. –Ed.

“You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a third — a something between the do-nothing and the do-all.” - Emma, Vol. I, Ch. 1

Okay, okay, we know there’s not a whole lot to go on when it comes to Jane Austen biography. The perfidious Cassandra Austen burnt all her sister’s letters (no doubt full of breathless descriptions of love affairs and complaints about having to feed the pigs when she really wanted to be wandering aimlessly through the woods caressing trees and writing angsty melodrama) and the uptight Victorian relatives were better at dodgy past-laundering than Paris Hilton’s publicist, so what scarce material exists must be plumped out with speculation. In most biographies of Jane Austen, such speculation varies in adherence to the real story, some biographers venturing further afield than others. Those who do take greater liberties generally do so in the name of scholarship, so even if one disagrees with that biographer’s conclusions, one can, however grudgingly, accept the process. (more…)

Everyone knows we’re all about the snark here at AustenBlog, but we think there is, in some parts, an impression that we do it just for the sake of being mean. Nothing could be further from the truth. The main objective of this blog is to share news of interest to Jane Austen fans with other Jane Austen fans. But hey, we are Jane Austen fans, and that means we kind of like snark. We like humor. We like irony. And sometimes they just make it too darned easy.

Alert Janeite Carmen sent us a link to an interview with Anne Hathaway, who pretty much shows why actors playing a historical personage should never be viewed as experts on that person. (more…)